1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to automotive air conditioners, and more particular to the automotive air conditioners of a type that is compact in size and provides various air blow modes with the aid of slide doors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, various automotive air conditioners have been proposed and put into practical use. Some of them are of a type that can provide various air-blow modes, such as Ventilation-mode, Defrost-mode, Foot-mode and the like. For establishing such modes, the air conditioner is provided, at a position downstream of an air-mix chamber, with a plurality of air outlet openings which lead through respective ducts to defrosting air-blow openings, ventilation air-blow openings and foot warming air-blow openings which are exposed to given portions of a passenger room of an associated motor vehicle. The air outlet openings at the air-mix chamber are controlled by control doors for selectively establishing the air-blow modes.
Some of the automotive air conditioners of such type are shown in Japanese Laid-open Patent Applications (Tokkai-hei) 11-139140 and 10-71824. In the air conditioners of these publications, slide doors and/or rotary doors are used as the control doors for the purpose of reducing the size of the air conditioner as well as smoothing the air flow through given passages defined in a case of the air conditioner.
However, even the measures disclosed by such publications have failed to provide an automotive air conditioner which is satisfactorily compact in size. If other measure is applied to the air conditioner for much more reducing the size, the performance regarding smoothed air flow for the air-blow modes is sacrificed.
It is therefor an object of the present invention to provide an automotive air conditioner which is compact in size and can exhibit a satisfied performance in providing smoothed air flow for the air-blow modes irrespective of the compact construction.
According to the present invention, there is provided an air conditioner of an a motor vehicle, which comprises a casing including an air intake opening, an evaporator chamber, a full-passage, a bypass-passage and an air-mix chamber, each of the full-passage and said bypass-passage extending from the evaporator chamber to the air-mix chamber independently; a housing having a downwardly curved upper wall which is incorporated with the casing to cover the air-mix chamber; an air flow producing device which forces air to enter the evaporator chamber of the casing from the air intake opening of the same; an air-mix door movably installed in the casing to selectively open and close the full-passage and the bypass-passage; an evaporator installed in the evaporator chamber; a heater core installed in the full-passage; first, second and third openings formed in the downwardly curved upper wall of the housing, the first, second and third openings being communicated with given portions of a passenger room of the vehicle respectively; and a slide door assembly mounted below the downwardly curved upper wall of the housing, the slide door assembly including first and second slide doors which are arranged to vary the open area of the first, second and third openings in cooperation with each other.